Prince William's bold push for workplace equality

1:19 PM,
Jul. 26, 2013

Written by

Judith Warner

On the face of it, Prince William's decision to take two weeks of job-protected, paid statutory paternity leave is absurd.

The heir to the British throne can live without the approximately $206 a week in taxpayer funds that men in Britain are entitled to receive if they take time off to welcome a baby.

But as a symbolic gesture, the prince's choice is, as the Brits would say, brilliant. For in William's subtle, necessarily apolitical, good-guy way, he has issued the boldest possible statement of support for true workplace equality between men and women. It's a message that was too quickly ...